John Boyne

A bit more about the man behind the bestselling novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas...

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Born in Dublin in 1971 Boyne’s father works in insurance and his mother is a housewife. He has said in interview that he always wanted to be a writer because he was such an avid reader: “We had a ritual of going to the library every week and getting out books. I loved Enid Blyton, I was obsessed with The Secret Seven. When I was twelve I had my appendix out and I read through the whole of the Narnia series in a couple of weeks.”

Boyne subsequently studied English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin, and creative writing at the University of East Anglia where he was awarded the Curtis Brown prize, an award given to the best prose fiction student on UEA's Creative Writing MA. On finishing, he took a job at Waterstone’s in Dublin, writing before and after work, and some time later, found an agent who liked his work.

His early writing consisted mostly of short stories, and his first, The Entertainments Jar, was shortlisted for the Hennessy Literary Award in Ireland. Since then, he has published seven novels: The Thief of Time (2000); The Congress of Rough Riders (2001); Crippen (2004); Next of Kin (2006); The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2006); Mutiny on the Bounty (2008) and The House of Special Purpose (2009).

His 2006 holocaust novel, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, was made into an award-winning 2008 film which featured David Thewlis and Sheila Hancock. The novel also won two Irish Book Awards, the Bisto Book of the Year, and was shortlisted or won a host of international awards. Amongst other accolades, it spent more than 80 weeks at No.1 in the Irish bookseller lists, topped the New York Times bestseller list, and was the bestselling book in Spain in both 2007 and 2008. Worldwide, it has sold more than 5 million copies. Boyne’s eighth novel is a book for younger readers; entitled Noah Barleywater Runs Away, it will be released in October 2010.


The House of Special Purpose
Russia, 1915: Sixteen year old farmer's son Georgy Jachmenev steps in front of an assassin's bullet intended for a senior member of the Russian Imperial Family and is instantly proclaimed a hero. Rewarded with the position of bodyguard to Alexei Romanov, the only son of Tsar Nicholas II, the course of his life is changed forever. Privy to the secrets of Nicholas and Alexandra, the machinations of Rasputin and the events which will lead to the final collapse of the autocracy, Georgy is both a witness and participant in a drama that will echo down the century. Sixty-five years later, visiting his wife Zoya as she lies in a London hospital, memories of the life they have lived together flood his mind. And with them, the consequences of the brutal fate of the Romanovs which has hung like a shroud over every aspect of their marriage...

Read more about The House of Special Purpose at Lovereading.co.uk